April 4, 2008

More Moving

Last summer I was distraught and obsessed with moving to a new home. I'd really like to be the kind of person who puts down roots and never moves, as I don't find much joy in moving. Especially in August down here in the blazing desert.

I'm not moving homes again, but I will be moving my classroom. Everybody in my school will be moving into another classroom--in another building.

For those of you who teach in absolute horrid conditions, please do not read on. It will just make you loathe me and my colleagues and our brand new school.

Oh yes, we are so excited! Kind of. Right now we're not. There's so much weeding out and boxing up to do. The administrator who was brought on to help us with the transition got us all riled up right away by telling us not to take our old junk. "The tax payers want to see everything new." I thought the reading teachers might riot when it was suggested that they not take any beat-up (well-loved) books. And those old comfy couches in reading corners are not welcome either. I guess my $3 stool will be going back to the thrift store. Sigh.

Many of us are concerned about storage. What comes "standard" is about half of what I have in my classroom. Is anyone surprised that six bookcases and three filing cabinets isn't standard? So, I'm in the process of making those serious choices about what to keep, what to throw away, and what to send to the obsolete pile. I accuse the students of being pack rats, but we teachers are the worst--especially those of us who've taught for a while, have been in the same classroom for a few years, and who work in older schools where we inherit "things" from our predecessors.

I love a good purging. Please tell me that it will feel just as good paring down my classroom materials and that I won't regret throwing away those things I'm saving for the time I might need them.